From Left To Right: Jonathan Ruest (AES Emerson Chair), John Krivit, Izzy Maxwell, Adam Correia, Tedd Terry, Emma Weston (AES Emerson Vice-Chair)
At the March 18 meeting professor John Krivit spoke to the Emerson College Student Chapter about the audio industry's changing landscape and how it will affect the kinds of work that students will do after they graduate. Krivit, who teaches at Emerson as well as the New England Insitute of Art and Bay State College, has been, for the past 14 years, successfully finding work for his graduates in many divergent fields of audio. To demonstrate some of the principles and strategies he espouses, Krivit brought along three recent former students who reflect the wide array of choices available to someone graduating with an audio degree.
Tedd Terry, who achieved a BS from the New England Institute of Art, works as a Q & A Engineer at Izotope, makers of Ozone, Alloy, RX and other popular audio software. In that capacity, Terry often finds himself giving technical support to music producers at the AES Conventions and to Hollywood sound designers over the telephone and internet. This builds connections that help to ensure a successful career even if Terry ever decides to move on. His career path also demonstrates that while fewer large studios exist, more and more mid level and home studios are creating an expanded market for the products that his growing company is known for.
Izzy Maxwell, another of Krivit's former students, works as the Audio Co-manager and Senior Sound Designer for Harmonix, makers of the Beatles Rock Band game. Maxwell told of entering school and taking on an internship at a local recording studio only to find out that the studio life was not for him. In casting his lot with the fledgling gaming company prior to its enormous success, he discovered a career path that reflected a new reality: game companies were now selling an awful lot of music. Harmonix's partnership with the Beatles has ironically brought Maxwell back into the studio but this time to the legendary Abby Road in London to mix John, Paul, George and Ringo.
Adam Correia, yet another recent graduate of the New England Institute of Art, spends most of his time traveling the world as a monitor engineer for the band Metallica. His tireless work, attention to detail and people skills has landed him on one of the industry's highest grossing tours. Correia's success is also a confirmation that while studio work might be low paying and difficult to come by, opportunities still abound for the live engineer who is smart, talented and mature.
For each of these former students, their career paths have veered in unexpected directions away from their initial conceptions of post-graduate life in a traditional recording studio to reflect the new trends and opportunities of the audio business.
